TV sets steadily increase in screen size and, due to the request for high contrast in operation, feature an almost black screen in the off or stand-by state.
As a matter of fact the increasing demand for high daylight contrast of TV screens resulted in the development of many measures for contrast enhancement (phosphor coatings, application of black pigments between the RGB pixels, glass coloration, etc.). The overall effect of these contrast enhancement measures is the reduction of the albedo of the TV screen. Nowadays, this has been driven to such an extent, that TV screens are almost completely black. In other words, a large and flat TV screen in the off or stand-by state appears as a “black stain” at the wall, which might have a negative impact to the cozy atmosphere of living rooms.
Commonly, walls onto which the TV set is installed are white or painted with a light color. This results in an unpleasant contrast to the dark screen that is hanging on the wall whenever the TV set is switched off. Some TV sets having backlight capabilities offer the option to switch on the backlight during the TV off state to obtain a cozy atmosphere, but the TV screen itself remains black.
Hence, an improved system would be advantageous.